The present disclosure relates generally to the initiation of control signals. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a signal-initiation device for initiating control signals in an aircraft fuselage, to an aircraft fuselage including a signal-initiation device of such a type, to an aircraft including such a fuselage, and to the use of a signal-initiation device of such a type.
Orifice shutters that are present in an aircraft fuselage, such as aircraft doors and cargo doors, are nowadays operated, inter alia, hydraulically. For example, a cargo door, i.e., an orifice shutter that is present in the aircraft fuselage for opening and closing a cargo hold, is opened and closed hydraulically. The operating elements for the operation of the cargo door are accommodated nowadays behind a shutter in the aircraft fuselage alongside the cargo door in a so-called operating box (OP box). Usually mechanical operating elements are located in the OP box. The operating elements of the OP box consist of switches for the hydraulic system that opens and closes the cargo door via a hydraulic cylinder. A pressurized bushing routes the hydraulic pipes out of the fuselage into the OP box and to the mechanical operating elements.
For the purpose of retaining the atmospheric pressure in the cabin region of the aircraft even at high flight altitudes, the fuselage of passenger aircraft exhibits at least one pressurized region for the passengers. As a rule, the cargo hold of an aircraft is likewise under atmospheric pressure. Generating units and such like which are not reliant on atmospheric pressure are chiefly arranged outside the pressurized region(s) of the fuselage. An aircraft fuselage with one or more regions of such a type is usually designated as a pressurized fuselage. The OP box is likewise part of the pressurized fuselage and is accordingly kept appropriately stable. In the A350® aircraft manufactured by Airbus® the OP box has been constructed from carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) and, for example, from titanium sheet.
The saving of fuel is increasingly gaining in importance in aircraft. One measure for reducing the fuel consumption is the reduction of the weight of aircraft. Accordingly, it is desirable to configure components of an aircraft in a weight-saving manner. In accord therewith, it is desirable to design as many as possible of the components necessary for controlling orifice shutters that are present in an aircraft to be as light as possible.